Since work began in November 2022, 47 Airbus A380s and 53 Boeing 777s have been given a complete nose-to-tail refresh at the Emirates Engineering hangars in Dubai. By the end of December 2026, around 20 additional aircraft will be upgraded.
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Over a period of 44 months, the Emirates Engineering team has deployed more than 400 engineers and technicians, investing a collective 4.4 million man hours to transform 100 aircraft and deliver a sophisticated upgrade across the cabin interiors of all the aircraft. Every aircraft was also fitted out with a new Premium Economy Cabin during the retrofit.
More than 3,800 new Premium Economy seats have been installed in total as part of the initiative, accelerating the rollout of this much sought-after product to more routes across Emirates’ network, with more opportunities for customers to experience the highly acclaimed cabins.
Since the project began in November 2022, the Emirates Engineering team has retrofitted an average of 28 aircraft a year. As part of every retrofit, engineers completely take apart the interiors of the aircraft, execute a thorough refresh across all cabins armed with 4000+ parts for an A380 aircraft and 2500+ parts for a Boeing 777 aircraft and then put everything back together with precision.
Emirates’ retrofit programme was first announced in November 2021 covering 105 aircraft from the airline’s fleet. In November 2022, the very first Emirates aircraft, an Airbus A380, underwent retrofit at the Emirates Engineering hangars in Dubai. By May 2024, underlined by strong customer demand, the retrofit initiative was expanded to cover 191 aircraft and then to 219 aircraft by the end of the year. In August 2024, the first Boeing 777 retrofitted in Dubai entered commercial service.
In May 2026, the Emirates Engineering team completed the two to three class retrofit of an A380, a project involving important structural changes to the aircraft including the introduction of Premium Economy Cabin in the upper deck of the aircraft for the very first time.
Starting this October, the Emirates retrofit programme will enter its next phase with the installation of 4K OLED HDR10+ display screens on aircraft seatbacks along with the introduction of the new lightweight Safran Z400 seats, among other modifications.
